2025 marked the launch of Maine Audubon’s four Community Tree Nurseries in Portland, Auburn, Bangor, and East Machias. Working with professional partners in municipal public works, urban forestry, vocational education, and habitat restoration, these nurseries will produce native species of trees and other plants for city arborists to use in replacing canopy trees in Maine’s […]
Environmental Education
Come mingle with wildlife at Maine Audubon
Great news for adult wildlife watchers and animal lovers! We’re once again joining forces with our friends at Center for Wildlife to host a Summer Wildlife Mingle on July 31 at Gilsland Farm. Come enjoy tasty snacks and refreshing drinks while we learn from and mingle with Center for Wildlife staff and the wildlife ambassadors […]
School’s out: Our school-year programming recap!
It’s the end of school for many students here in Maine, and in the greater Portland area we are celebrating having worked with 5,000 students this school year (and that doesn’t even include vacation camps, festivals, or our public programming!). Through outdoor exploration, observation, experimentation, songs and games, art and storytelling, and engagement with the […]
Bangor Fifth Graders Build Bat Boxes to Protect Endangered Species
With guidance from Maine Audubon’s Curious by Nature online education program, Mr. Hobbs and Mr. Coburn’s 5th grade classes at Fairmount School in Bangor took a deep dive into the world of bats—and emerged as true wildlife advocates. The students had the opportunity to connect with Kelby Houtz, a biologist with the Maine Department of […]
Bangor Fifth Graders Take Action for Birds
Fifth-grade students in Ms. Mullin’s class at Mary Snow School in Bangor have been soaring with purpose—by tackling the issue of habitat loss for cavity-nesting birds in their local watershed. After learning how urbanization and landscape changes have impacted bird species like bluebirds, chickadees, and wrens, the students decided to take action. Their goal: build […]
Bangor Fifth Graders Leave Living Legacy with Art and Plants
This year, students in Mrs. Grunder’s 5th grade class at Mary Snow School in Bangor embarked on a journey of environmental learning, creative expression, and community action. In January 2025, the class joined a Maine Audubon “Curious by Nature” online education session, where they met Annette Dodds and Greg Edwards, co-founders of Bangor Beautiful. The […]
PreK Planting Parties!
“I’ve never held a plant before!” “I don’t like it . . . I love it!” “I’m going to tell my mom we don’t have to go to the grocery store anymore.” This spring, all Portland PreK classrooms of more than 250 children and 60 staff were able to get their hands dirty with some […]
Loons on the move: A visit to the Southern Maine Children’s Water Festival
—By Anne Heissenbuttel, Maine Audubon Loon Restoration Project Intern Kids making loon calls, shouting loon facts, playing loon trivia—that was all part of the scene on May 23, as 700 Maine fifth and sixth graders gathered in the University of Southern Maine’s recreation center in Portland to explore the Southern Maine Children’s Water Festival. Student […]
Deepening Wabanaki Studies in Portland Public Schools
Portland Public School Second Grade District-wide fieldwork in Portland Public Schools (PPS) continues to grow! As part of PPS’s Wabanaki Studies curriculum, every second grade student in Portland visited Mayor Baxter Woods, a 29-acre open space in the Deering Center neighborhood, in early May. Alongside Passamaquoddy member Minquansis Sapiel, students explored the woods while learning […]